Inside the nave, the original beams of the Renaissance ceiling decorated with painted rosettes have been preserved. On the two beams there is a Latin inscription with the date 1574 and the names of Katarzyna Łuszczewska, the then abbess of the Cistercians, parish priest Piotr Kuczyński and miller Jan from Górny Młyn (probably the contractor).

History of the structure

The first mention of Owińska dates back to the year 1249, however, the establishment of the village can be dated to the turn of the 12th/13th century or the beginning of the 13th century. It was a ducal village. Before 1252 the dukes of Wielkopolska, Przemysł I and Bolesław the Pious granted Owińska to the Cistercian nuns from Trzebnica. The monastery was supposed to be a votive offering for saving Wielkopolska from the destructive Tatar invasion. The nuns were brought to Owińska from the Silesian abbey in Trzebnica in the last months of 1252. The church and monastery buildings, preserved to this day, were built in the 18th century.

Owińska remained in the hands of the Cistercian nuns until the end of the 18th century. In 1797 the monastery property was sold by the Prussian state to a banker from Berlin - Sigismund Otto von Treskow.

Description of the structure

The Church of St. Nicholas is situated in the central part of the village, on the western side of the road from Poznań to Murowana Goślina, about 500 m. from the buildings of the former Cistercian monastery. Its chancel faces east. On the western side of the church there is an old cemetery, fenced with a Baroque brick wall with a tripartite gate from the south. The Renaissance, partially Baroque church consists of a rectangular nave and a slightly narrower, straight closed chancel, opened to the nave with a pointed archway. A small rectangular sacristy adjoins the chancel to the north. On the south side of the nave there is a square porch. The nave and equal-height chancel are covered by a high gable roof. Over the sacristy and the south porch - much lower gable roofs with ridges perpendicular to the main roof ridge.

The church is a brick building, with bricks arranged in the Polish (Gothic) bond with single stones. The walls are partly plastered. The roofs are covered with ceramic roof tiles. The interior of the chancel is covered with a new ceiling, which replaced the former Renaissance ceiling adorned with faux coffers. In the nave, partially profiled beams of the original ceiling decorated with rosettes have been preserved. On two beams there is a Latin inscription with the date 1574 and the names of Katarzyna Łuszczewska, the then abbess of the Cistercians, parish priest Piotr Kuczyński and miller Jan from Górny Młyn (probably one of the contractors). The sacristy features sail vaults.

Outside, the church is buttressed. The elevations were plastered during the last renovation (except for the north elevation and the walls of the sacristy), leaving some parts unplastered. At the top there is a profiled cornice. The windows of the chancel are topped with semicircular arches, the slightly smaller windows of the nave are segmented. The eastern and western elevations are embellished with corner buttresses, the western elevation with a rectangular entrance in a segmented recess, topped with a triangular gable, decorated with the motif of a cross. The eastern elevation with a pointed-arch blind window on the axis, topped with a Baroque gable divided by a pair of pilasters, concave-convex in shape, with two segmented windows and a round blind window. The southern elevation is four-axial. The nave is partially covered by a porch, topped with a triangular gable. In the porch on the southern side there is a segmented entrance with a decorative plaster frame - segmented windows on the east and west sides. The northern elevation has two axes. The chancel is overshadowed by the sacristy, crowned by a gable with a concave-convex pattern. In the sacristy from the north two larger rectangular windows, in the gable - a segmented window.

Visitor access. The church can be visited from the outside. More information on the church is available at the website of the parish of St. John the Baptist: www.owinska.pl

Compiled by: Krzysztof Jodłowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 23.10.2017

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